After elementary school, children change to a secondary school. This can be a Hauptschule (Secondary general school), a Realschule (Intermediate secondary school), a Gymnasium (Grammar school), a Sekundarschule (a new type of secondary school in North Rhine-Westphalia) or a Gesamtschule (Comprehensive school).

Currently, there is no Sekundarschule in Bonn.

Primary school informs during the fourth grade about the different school types and their performance requirements as well as about the local school offerings. After this, the class teacher and the parents have a personal talk about further education of the child. The elementary school states an advice in the report card of the second half of fourth grade about the specific school type that is suggested by the teachers. An enrolment form is also issued.

Next to the advice of the school type of the three branch school system  - Hauptschule (Secondary general school), Realschule (Intermediate secondary school) or Gymnasium (Grammar school) -, the Gesamtschule (Comprehensive school) and the Sekundarschule (a new type of secondary school in North Rhine-Westphalia) are also always named because children with very different skills can go to these schools.

If a child is qualified for a third type of school with restrictions, the primary school also specifies this.

Registration process at the secondary school: 
The parents enrol their child with the report card of the second half of the fourth grade and the enrolment form at the continuing school. The school director decides whether a child gets accepted.

Parents should get in touch early with the preferred school to get an appointment for a meeting to agree on the possible admittance of their child. The meetings start a lot earlier than when the half-term grade papers and the enrolment forms are given out.

The „days of the open door“ ("Tage der offenen Tür"), to which all continuing schools in Bonn invite, can be used to get in contact as well.